Athletes- is this true?

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carolyn000000
carolyn000000 Posts: 179 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am on a Spartan race team going into my third season. We recently had a nutritionist come talk to us. She said you can't be trying to lose weight if you are training for a race. If you are, you are not training for a race.

My thinking is if I lose some weight I will perform better. I could stand to lose 15 pounds at 5'8' and 166 pounds. (Size 8, lots of lean muscle, so I look okay.) Apparently it is not okay to lose weight.
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  • jmonroe513
    jmonroe513 Posts: 1 Member
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    Someone correct me if I'm wrong but she probably meant that if you were training hard, you wouldn't want to be on a caloric deficit. You need to be on a caloric deficit to cut weight. And you wouldn't want to lose muscle or you might not be able to train hard enough.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    if you are working on peak performance then its probably not a good idea to be in a deep deficit. A 250-500 deficit may be ok. Everyone is different. You will know at what point you start losing energy, getting more tired etc.
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
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    You have to make sure you find balance - you most likely can't try to do something like loose 2 pounds a week AND fuel your workouts.

    I trained for a half marathon while losing weight around this time last year. I made sure I fueled my workouts and was at a modest deficit (around 0.5 lb/week). I had no issues training.

    Set MFP to lose 0.5 lb/week but no higher & make sure you're logging your workouts and eating back a portion of the exercise calories. If you find that you're struggling with your workouts, switch back to maintenance until after the event :)

    ~Lyssa
  • OldManOne
    OldManOne Posts: 67 Member
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    Fighters cut a lot of weight just prior to their fight..........best athletes in the world IMHO.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    carolyn000000 wrote: »
    I am on a Spartan race team going into my third season. We recently had a nutritionist come talk to us. She said you can't be trying to lose weight if you are training for a race. If you are, you are not training for a race.

    My thinking is if I lose some weight I will perform better. I could stand to lose 15 pounds at 5'8' and 166 pounds. (Size 8, lots of lean muscle, so I look okay.) Apparently it is not okay to lose weight.

    I wouldn't run more than a 250 cal deficit, and then go back to maintenance a week or 2 before the race
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
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    I think a large deficit would leave you feeling fatigued with a high training commitment.

    I'm no athlete, but I'm doing a half in 3 weeks and have actually put on a few pounds since Christmas. Ramping up the volume of running always leaves me starving whilst I'm adjusting, but my runs are getting faster and feeling strong, I've had no injuries, and I've made progress with the weights I'm using in the gym, so I like to think it's all muscle and the amount of toast and ice cream I've been snaffling is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for my training ;)
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    edited February 2016
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    OldManOne wrote: »
    Fighters cut a lot of weight just prior to their fight..........best athletes in the world IMHO.

    I'm not completely familiar with fighters but I do know they drop a lot of water weight pre- weight in. Then replenish glycogen stores after weight in before the fight. I do not know how much they cut prior to that. The water weight would be different than overall weight loss while training.

    Yes, if you are at a high level of training it is very difficult or impossible to balance losing weight and getting maximum benefit from your training. A lot of people will do a cut prior to a training cycle then move to maintainance for the training cycle.
    That said, at some point, dropping the weight alone will increase performance enough to be worth it.
    And some people are willing to sacrafice performance to meet their weight goals. That doesn't mean you can't finish, it simply means you may not be getting maximum benefits from your training.
    It depends on where you are.

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited February 2016
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    She said you can't be trying to lose weight if you are training for a race. If you are, you are not training for a race.

    That's more of a soundbite than reality!
    Loads of athletes in sports where weight is important to performance or have to make a weight category lose weight in the build up to their events.
    High deficit for a short time or small deficit for an extended time both work - big deficit for a long time plus hard training is a recipe for fatigue, impaired recovery and poor performance though.

    I did my first century ride while losing weight but simply switched to maintenance for the week leading up to the event. The vast majority of my training was while in a calorie deficit.
  • carolyn000000
    carolyn000000 Posts: 179 Member
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    Okay, from all of your input, It sounds like a slight deficit would be okay as long my energy does not suffer. I am prone to over training.

    I never thought about fighters.

    I really want to do both, and I am on the fence about compromising performance to meet weight loss goals. Going for top 3 in my age group; I was 4th at my last race! I feel like I could scamper up those walls and ropes if I weighed less. To me it just makes sense to loose weight. (Thinking out loud here)
    sijomial wrote: »
    She said you can't be trying to lose weight if you are training for a race. If you are, you are not training for a race.

    That's more of a soundbite than reality!
    Loads of athletes in sports where weight is important to performance or have to make a weight category lose weight in the build up to their events.
    High deficit for a short time or small deficit for an extended time both work - big deficit for a long time plus hard training is a recipe for fatigue, impaired recovery and poor performance though.

    I did my first century ride while losing weight but simply switched to maintenance for the week leading up to the event. The vast majority of my training was while in a calorie deficit.
    sijomial wrote: »
    She said you can't be trying to lose weight if you are training for a race. If you are, you are not training for a race.

    That's more of a soundbite than reality!
    Loads of athletes in sports where weight is important to performance or have to make a weight category lose weight in the build up to their events.
    High deficit for a short time or small deficit for an extended time both work - big deficit for a long time plus hard training is a recipe for fatigue, impaired recovery and poor performance though.

    I did my first century ride while losing weight but simply switched to maintenance for the week leading up to the event. The vast majority of my training was while in a calorie deficit.

  • carolyn000000
    carolyn000000 Posts: 179 Member
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    Sorry trying to figure out the quote thing, sijornial, how much of a calorie deficit were you at when you were training?
  • litsy3
    litsy3 Posts: 783 Member
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    I have found it is reasonably easy to lose weight by running a small deficit over a longer period of time if you are doing a high volume of training, because (a) you need a lot of calories to maintain and (b) if you're out training for a few hours you aren't spending that time eating. I used to do aerial rope and trapeze classes while training for a marathon and I found that losing a few pounds definitely made it a lot easier to lift and control my bodyweight. I'd agree with the other posters though that you wouldn't want a too-aggressive deficit for endurance training, and that you'd want to go back to maintenance for a couple of weeks before the race.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    The larger a deficit the more it will impact training. You can lose weight and train hard at the same time, but the smaller the deficit the better. As someone else mentioned you might want to up calories closer to race time. I'm probably an odd person, but my lifting is better when I'm in a deficit. My type of competition also requires that I train hard while losing weight since I'm a competitive bodybuilder.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    I'm an endurance cyclist and I've done both...mind you, when I was dieting and training, my focus was really on losing about 40 Lbs and training and participating in cycling and other events was just a fun way to get my fitness going...I wasn't focused on optimal performance.

    These days, if I need to drop some weight I do so in the off season...I've lost the weight I need to lose, but always put on a little in the winter...so I cut it in early spring in prep for the coming season...I do not cut when I'm full on training as performance and recovery does suffer.

    It just depends on where your focus is...if you need to lose weight, there's nothing wrong with training and competing in events...it's fun and motivating...but in many respects I agree that you're not really training for the race as that isn't the primary focus. Having done both, I can tell a substantial difference between training in a deficit vs training in maintenance. Like I said, I cut weight if need be in the off season so that I can hit it once I really start training and I get into the cycling season.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    carolyn000000 wrote: »
    Sorry trying to figure out the quote thing, sijornial, how much of a calorie deficit were you at when you were training?

    I was shooting for 1lb a week loss but I was also dieting in the 5:2 way of eating, so 5 days at maintenance and 2 days really big deficit every week. I found for me that supported a heavy training volume very well - the biggest training days were on days when I was at maintenance levels, eating back exercise calories.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    There's a modicum of truth in what said inasmuch as you need to fuel the workouts so big caloric deficits, especially at the later stages of a training cycle, would be ill advised if you want to perform well.

    A modest deficit will be offset by your body using fat as fuel so you can do both but you'd be losing weight at a slow rate (which is a good thing anyway....)
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,669 Member
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    OldManOne wrote: »
    Fighters cut a lot of weight just prior to their fight..........best athletes in the world IMHO.
    Not a "healthy way" though. Dehydration along with excessive cardio, then they load up after the weigh in. Not really good for your heart.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    OldManOne wrote: »
    Fighters cut a lot of weight just prior to their fight..........best athletes in the world IMHO.

    I used to wrestle and had to make weight before a match...I didn't train in a deficit...I'd cut weight to make my weigh in by dehydrating myself...jogging while wearing a trash bag, cutting out carbs, crashing my diet to nothing, etc...once I made weight, I reloaded...but my day to day training and practice was fueled, big time.
  • carolyn000000
    carolyn000000 Posts: 179 Member
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    Sounds like I can't have my cake and eat it too, but can still get by with small deficits.

    BTW she also said 30-50% should come from carbs, 25-35% from protein, and 25-35% from fat. I seems like way too many carbs to me.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    Carbs are quick energy. If you're running and you don't have any medical conditions there's no reason to fear carbs.

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